Caregiver in Folsom CA
May is Women’s Health Care Month. As your aging parent’s family caregiver, it is your responsibility to empower your parent to take control of her health and take the proper steps to stay healthy throughout her aging years. Throughout this month, focus your attention on making your care efforts about not just fulfilling your parent’s basic needs, but about making sure that she can achieve and maintain the highest level of mental, emotional, and physical health possible.
Use these tips to help you and your parent focus on her health during Women’s Health Care Month:
- Know her risks. Review the health guidelines that apply to your aging parent. This includes knowing the types of risks that your parent faces and if she has any particular risk factors for those issues. For aging women, some of the risks that you may want to consider include breast cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Talk to your parent’s doctor about any particular risks that she is facing considering her personal health and current condition, and ask for recommendations for how she can reduce those risks and live a healthier lifestyle.
- Know the guidelines. It is difficult to keep up with proper proactive health care if you do not know the recommendations for how to do it. This month, learn about the guidelines for health approaches including testing and screenings that your parent can use to stay informed about her health. This should include basis screenings such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight, as well as more complex issues such as cancer and diabetes. Many of the guidelines have changed considerably recently and they vary depending on the age of the senior, so it is important to review these guidelines with the doctor and create a routine that is right for her.
- Empower her. When it comes to her health, make sure that your parent knows that the decisions are hers. Many seniors feel as though they no longer have control over their lives or that they have been “taken over” by their family caregiver. This can be a stressful and upsetting feeling. Empower your parent to evaluate all of the different treatment, management, and prevention methods that are available to her and determine the one that is best for her. Support her in these decisions and encourage her to feel confident in the care that she chooses.
- Create a healthy lifestyle. Transform your care efforts into being about ongoing health, activity, and quality of life. Rather than just filling needs, find ways that you can enhance your parent’s life and give her the tools that she needs to take care of her own health and promote her own healthy, active, happy lifestyle. This can mean improving her diet, getting more physically active, or spending more time with others and giving back to the community through volunteer efforts. Ensure that your focus is on the life that she wants to live so that you can make her aging years the best possible.
If you or an aging loved one needs caregiver services in Folsom, CA, remember Senior Home Care Services. Call us at (916) 514-7006 for more information.
Owner at A Better Living Home Care
I started A Better Living Home Care Agency after seeing the impersonal and inconsistent service of large home care companies and franchises in the Greater Sacramento Area. I know, because I once worked for one. I left to put the “personal” back into home care.
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